Customer Reviews

Piano Starts Here: Live at the Shrine - Zenph

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The original "Piano Starts Here" album has been my favorite for many years, or rather - decades. It was plagued by tape hiss, cracking, flat tuning due to stretching of the original master and so on. Every time I'd listen to it I was wondering how wonderful it must've been to hear Art Tatum live, without all these problems of an old recording. But then, I was grateful that anything was preserved at all. Those recordings were 70 years old after all.

And then Zenph studio did the impossible: they managed to extract all the information from the original recording, way beyond capabilities of today's MIDI standard, and then re-performed it at the place where the original performance took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure to be there and listen to the master live! What an experience that was... one can only wish for more of the same.

So now, the old used and abused "Piano starts here" in my collection is replaced by the new recording of the true Jazz Master and I just can't get enough of it. The muddy sound of the original recording which was most offensive in fast passages in "Tiger Rag" and "Tatum-Pole Boogie", is now replaced by perfect clarity and sheer brilliance that will bring true joy of Tatum improvisations to the listener.

If you are having reservations due to technology used to produce this recording, think no more: this album is for purists, it has no traces of technology in it, it is simply Art Tatum at his best. Finally, Art Tatum gets the treatment he deserves.

Zenph Studios, who dazzled me with their Glenn Gould re-performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations has somehow managed to raise the bar. I have just purchased two more of ART TATUM: PIANO STARTS HERE to give as gifts.

I cannot be more blown away by the artistry and magic of Art Tatum. Zenph with this Sony/BMG release has uncovered nuance and wizardry that has been lost to time. This CD, especially the binaural headphone version, allows the listener to experience Tatum's playing as HE heard it.

Extraordinary talent deserves an extrodinary CD like this one. Thanks Zenph Studios and Sony BMG. Tatum lives agin!

It is no great secret that the brilliant recordings of the late, great Art Tatum are not of the best audio quality. This Zenph recreation of Tatum goes a long way to rectifying that problem. This is one of the most delightful and best-sounding piano SACDs I own.

Just get a copy, open it wide on the system and let it roll through the house...

If you know Tatum, you will be in piano heaven. Absolutely amazing stuff!

BUY IT NOW!!!!

For any of you who love Art Tatum, jazz and/or the piano this is a must!

What a difference between the original recording and the Re-Performance ... I actually got goose bumps, it felt and sounded like Tatum was in the room playing. Some how the combination of performer and Zenph process created this magic. The reality is that it's good to own the original and this new release but I cannot stop listening to the new release - the sound is just so crisp.

Gould, now Tatum ... really looking forward to what's next!

This is a great disc. The binaural recording in particular is amazing through Stax headphones.

This album is a must have for anyone other than the most hardened luddite that prefers awful sound quality to an unbelievable "re-performance". From what I understand, Zenph actually re-performed the concert in front of a live audience at the Shrine Auditorium to get some of the same ambiance of the original.

As a result, the original recording that had awful sound quality has now set the piano free of all of the cloudiness.

The album has everything.. SACD surround, normal CD, and even a binaural version for headphone listening.

I do not need to comment on the performance itself. However, it is classic Art Tatum...which is to say it is spectacular.

This Art Tatum re-recording is a must for any piano music lover. It captures the spirit and energy of the original Art Tatum album. It matches the intensity of the earlier Zenph Studio recording of the Glen Gould - Goldberg Variations. I am amazed at the wonderful interpretation and clarity that is built into these recordings and highly recommend both to any serious music lover. I look forward to future recordings by Zenph.

Five stars do not do Art Tatum justice. If other pianists receive a five-star review, Tatum deserves six or seven. He is the pianistic equivalent of turning the volume up to 11, and his reputation as one of the greatest pianists in any genre who ever lived is totally justified -- a combination of phenomenal technique without bombast, incredible creativity, unfailing swing and impeccable taste. What more needs to be said? I owned the "Piano Starts Here" LP on vinyl, and am so pleased to have it re-released on CD - I don't know what the "zenph" reperformance stuff is about, but it sounds like the same performances as on the original LP, the sound quality is great, every note is there to marvel at, and my only regret is that I was born too late to ever have the opportunity to see this genius perform live. An essential addition to the library of anyone who considers themselves a fan of piano music.

Great performance as well as great sound, considering the age of this performance. Remastering has done a great job.

This album conveys the very best of recorded solo performance at the piano. To say "there is nothing else like it" overlooks the efforts of those who have carefully sought to emulate Tatum's genius. Dick Hyman clearly belongs in the latter category; Hyman's "Blues in the Night" album, for example, includes material that goes a long way toward achieving a technical resurrection of Tatum's boundless virtuosity. Dick Hyman never disguises his debt to his source, however; Hyman's loving emulations of Tatum's playing are respectfully explicit.

But to stand at the mountain-top, please listen to this flawless reproduction. There is nothing else like it.

"Piano Starts Here" is a seminal album that belongs in the library of every serious pianist: classical, blues, jazz, country, comedy... Art Tatum's sense of humor is on full display in these numbers, by the way; sadly, Art was frequently relegated to the ranks of "hired talent" in the canned radio interviews that serve as lead-ins to other Tatum recordings. Tatum's stiff readings of scripted radio dialogue threaten to undermine the zany, subversive, Groucho-like antics that enliven so many of his interpretations.

The classic catalog of thirteen tunes in the original is offered twice here, in slightly different recorded formats, to offer contrasting playback modalities for the impeccable editorial clean-up that's been achieved. For some, the duplication may seem laborious and unnecessary. Still another peccadillo is the insertion of canned applause at the end of each number.

These, however, are minor irritants in the scheme of things. To hear Art Tatum "clean," in a flawlessly recorded sound environment, is a musical miracle. Twenty-five years ago, "Piano Starts Here" sounded like an album recorded by Edison for the Smithsonian. Today it sounds as if Art Tatum were alive and well in Los Angeles. Hats off to the brilliant achievements of these fine engineers and archivists.